murder

It is a close race and Romney is leading in some areas. This should not be the case this early in the game. Suddenly Obama’s swagger isn’t buying him much political capital these days or hiding the pit tang dripping from his shirt either. Like Facebook, I think he’s peaked. He’s done, according to experts like Dick Morris author of Screwed. If you didn’t already know, Dick ranks up there as one belonging in the “always right” category and is typically unbiased in his revelations. He used to be a former Clinton advisor so he knows all about their dirty deeds and how they fit into the scheme of Obama’s political demise too.

The crystal clear vision that many trusted analysts like Dick see ahead is that Obama’s cronyism is going to bite him in the ass when he needs it least. It has already burned him several times, but he usually just throws whoever has been caught doing something crazy under the bus. Fox News covers the roadkill for a while and then it’s over.

Recently though, the bad entourage choices are piling up and they’re gaining the attention of those who don’t even watch Fox News. For example, one of his major supporters a Democratic Congressman by the name of Danny Davis, In the 112th Congress. Representative Davis serves on Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives and serves on the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal, Labor. The Congressman also serves on the Homeland Security Committee where his subcommittee assignments are the Subcommittee on Transportation and the Subcommittee on Oversight. Congressman Davis is a member of several Congressional Caucuses including the Congressional Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, the Urban Caucus, the Community Health Center’s Caucus, and the Congressional Sugar Caucus.

He is a very busy dude. He also happens to openly attend meetings with and receive kudos from the Communist Party USA. He was a keynote speaker at their event in February where he spoke out against the Tea Party organization. When asked about his involvement by a person who said he was a concerned citizen, not just a reporter, on camera Davis said flat-out “well, if you are just an ordinary citizen why would you be concerned about my involvement with the Communist Party?” Really? Who would say such things and risk boldly participating in the Communist organization, whilst still in the highest favor of Obama and the Democratic Party? Someone who has been promised a seat at the big Socialist table, that’s who. That is, if they can make it that far without getting caught doing f’d up things for the benefit of the left-wing socialist agenda.

Another example, on a much more serious scale, President Obama hired people like Tom Donilon. Yah, I think that’s his name. He is by nature a publicist or something like that, but Obama hired him as his National Security Advisor. You’d think not a good combo, right? I’m just sayin’. They think this is the guy that is leaking the classified information to make Obama look good. Makes sense right? An example of this is right after they killed Osama bin Laden someone leaked to the NY Times that it was Obama working close hand with Seal Team 6 that did it. A few months later the chopper carrying Seal Team 6 members was shot out of the sky. Then there’s the Pakistani doctor to Osama bin Laden who was promised asylum if he helped us get OBL. Not only did someone forget to pick his ass up with an armored helicopter, his name was somehow leaked to the NY Times. Since then Pakistan has thrown him in a prison somewhere and sentenced him to 30 years. We can’t get him out. There’s also a Russian diplomat we used and is now in the same boat I think. All of this, according to the NY Times, came from someone very close to Obama in the White House. Obama had the gall to say “To think someone in MY Whitehouse would leak this type of information is just (ridiculous).” I forgot the word he used, but he’s about to eat it none the less.

Supposedly, they have started an investigation to find out who exactly the leak is so that they can throw him under the bus too but, unfortunately it doesn’t matter who the leak was. The leak was ordered by Obama’s mouth. That’s all you need to know about how much concern he has for National Security. They’ll probably draw that investigation out until they think it doesn’t matter to voters anymore just like they are doing with the “Fast and Furious” case.

If you don’t know about that one, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder is playing dumb in regards to a bunch of American guns being sold to Mexican cartels as part of a sting operation gone badly. According to officials, the guns were apparently not tracked correctly and told to be forgotten about by someone in the Obama Administration. Sure enough they ended up being the weapons used to murder an American investigator among others. Holder cannot explain where the documents he is supposed to give in accordance to the Senate’s subpoena are exactly. It’s ridiculous. So, they are about to file contempt charges on him, the first African-American Attorney General appointed by the one and only President Obama.

Further adding to his demise is the disintegration of the African-American support base. They began with the racism Pseudos I suspect the moment they realized African-Americans were starting to un-identify with the ultra-left wing policies of the administration. African-Americans tend to be Democrats, but they are not for the most part liberal. This has been a tricky dance for the Obama Administration all along, but I think their starting to stumble as they continue to concoct dividing issues. The White House and anonymous supporters then not so discretely use the media to follow (over-expose) crimes against African-Americans only, and also tend to comment on crimes involving African-Americans. This has left a familiar bad taste in REAL leaders of minority communities. They don’t like being used for political gain, because they are the ones that really get hurt. Stirring up race is a pointless and vicious method to use on the part of the Democratic strategists because it causes more unnecessary hate and distrust among the poorer, already struggling communities than they can handle. You think Obama gives a damn? They are so disappointed he is not elevating them, but instead using the black race as a political wildcard that they are flat-out not going to vote for him again.

Point in case… Michigan. Michigan, political Zion for the unions and solid Democratic blue policies is turning purple. Yes. Recently over half of those polled in Michigan says they will be voting Republican next year. This, even when Obama’s one claim to success is bailing out the American automobile industry. I believe it is a sign they know that he did not make them successful, they did. Yes he approved the money, but they went over and beyond to show that they could make a turn-around if only they were given the full on slot of resources they needed. (Money, they’d had in the beginning if they didn’t constantly give in to Union pressures.) Could Michigan be the poster child for real change?

And the icing on the cake, a couple of days ago Obama says this in regards to the economy: “The private sector is doing fine.” Then further “it’s the public sector that needs more help.” The first part apparently doesn’t include the part of the private sector that is all the American citizens that can’t find work. The second part just points out that he obviously wants to spend more money to create/replace more public sector/government jobs as best method to get the economy back on track. He is a one trick pony as Mary Katherine Ham said, and we’re all getting bored.

All this boils down to is the apparent separation between Obama’s supporters and those who really want the best for our country. Loyalty to any general base of race or gender is no longer the ace up Obama’s sleeve, as both former entities and individuals that see his goals for what they really are are moving right and taking their votes with them.

Did you know the most important part of a lie isn’t the lie itself? Is it the motive? I mean what’s the first thing your mama asked you when she caught you in a lie? “Why did you lie to me?” Maybe it’s the effect of the lie.

We lie to ourselves and others lie to us because we reinforce on a daily, maybe even hourly basis, that lying is an acceptable way of communicating. This is Pseudos.

Why is Pseudos in particular so dangerous? What happens because of Pseudos?

#1: When we lie to ourselves it sets us up as victims.

#2: When others lie to us we are taken advantage of like victims.

This becomes the perfect psychological weapon.

Introducing…the cultural conscience…

We all have our own sense of needing to achieve. Some of us have higher levels of achievement than others do, but what keeps the achievers reaching for higher goals? Why don’t they become satisfied after one achievement? Maybe it is because, with achievement there comes rewards. We actively, like all animals, try to make the correct decisions and react in the way that will bring us rewards.

Comparing animals such as dogs or horses to humans in personality is one way we can judge if there are any ulterior motives unique to humans. Bear with me. This makes perfect sense, not only because many of us today, consider our pets to be people too, but because going by the five-criteria of personhood, given by the philosopher Mary Anne Warren, in many ways animals actually are people too. To be a person one must meet at least two of the following criteria: “consciousness, self-awareness, has self-actuated motivation, the ability to reason (solve complex problems) and have the ability to communicate.”

Most animals are self-aware, some can solve complex problems, they can communicate, and they are conscious and have self- actuated motivation. Additionally, we have the same basic motivations. Such as, a need for love and belonging, a need for sex, a need for food, water and shelter, a need for safety and security, and finally a need to make the correct decisions. In a rat, that might mean choosing to walk along the phone line instead of crossing the busy street to get home safe. He is rewarded every time he makes it home and punished at every close call on the road. He learns to survive by rewards and punishments. Yet some animals experience much more out of this operant conditioning. A dog not only learns to survive in his master’s home, but also learns to play and receive love and affection. The dog has not merely survived, but actually achieved something some humans never do.

My point is this: if behavior is primarily geared toward making the correct decisions and moving toward achievement in all kinds of people, why do humans lie? What causes our behavior to differ from all other animals in that we tend to partake in a sort of anti-achievement behavior, by lying? Every human does it. What person would admit he or she farted in the elevator? You are the only one who acts like you didn’t do it, so of course, everyone knows it’s you. From then on, everyone calls you stinky and you are humiliated- the most common form of self-defeatism. To humiliate is “to reduce one’s dignity or pride to a lower position” (Webster’s Dictionary). Humans are the only species who do this to themselves. Carl Rogers would say no one can make you feel put down or make you feel like you don’t belong but you. You would never see a dog refuse a bowl of ice cream because he was afraid of gaining weight.

So, what is it, then? Why do we make these semi-automatic decisions that are in the opposite of our basic interests? Besides our language capability, what makes us different from other animals, so much so that we have to tell lies? We have social pressures like nobody on Earth! That’s what makes us different! We have to be smart, we have to be brave, we have to be funny, we have to be rich, we have to be beautiful and we have to face humiliation every day. But why do we have to feel humiliated therefore causing some humans to tell little white lies almost automatically, and almost daily. You wouldn’t see a dog lying to another dog about whether he had food on his nose or not. The other dog would just lick it off, with neither of the dogs feeling humiliated.

In most cases of the individual, whether or not the told and believed lies do damage to others is not as important, because ultimately, it is a self-defeating behavior that brings more harm to the self than anyone else involved. This is mostly due to what I call the spider web theory. It is when strings of inaccurate responses, become a burden on the mind as it is constantly working on untangling it. (Your brain naturally works to keep the lies straight without you getting caught, so to speak.) Most don’t admit they lie on a regular basis to themselves or anyone else. This is in itself a form of Pseudos. They think, if anything, the lying is a symptom or way to deal with all of their other problems. They don’t see lying as the root of them, so it continues.

And consciously or not, this constant burden on the mind causes people not to sleep well, causing stress and illness, they tend to be more forgetful and they misplace things more often. They, more importantly tend to lose the trust of friends more often. They don’t realize that the lying is the root of much of the unhappiness and stress in their lives. As Bandura reports, there is something called “TRIADIC RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM”, meaning the world and a person’s behavior cause each other. “People do not simply react to environmental events; they actively create their own environments and act to change them.” I hate to sound like an old fogy, but it really seems that with progress we have literally lost touch with what’s important in life. We’re all busy spinning and untangling our webs. Sooner or later those little individual webs are going to get tangled with each other and we’ll all be stuck in one huge web of frustration and confusion.

That huge tangled web of frustration and confusion is our cultural conscience out of control.

So, are we really “losing touch” as society becomes more modernized? Can we help it? Do we have the skills to choose to be honest, caring people? Well, that takes self-discipline which ironically is taught to us by someone else. (Typically, it’s our parents.) Now you’re saying, discipline? My parents? Ha! Let me just say, I’m with you. With the absence of discipline in general in our society we can clearly see the environment we are creating just by watching reality television. These people are freaks of nature… but then there are a lot of them.

Could it be as Karen Horney suggests? We envy justifiable qualities we find in our culture and we can’t help but feel anxious about achieving them. Perfect relationships, power, recognition and prestige. Or can we overcome, like Carl Rogers says? That no one can make us feel inferior except for ourselves?

It could also be that we all have Horney’s “neurotic needs” to some extent. All ten of them in fact. (And that’s Karen Horney’s neurotic needs not horny neurotic needs, for all you perverts out there.) I’d list them and their explanations here, but that’s a whole ‘nother book. The most important of which, to all of us, is that we never lose our status. Many will lie no matter what the cost in order to preserve this status. And this is where Homey and I agree.

Most of us are terrified of being humiliated. Some of us, to the point where it doesn’t even register that telling the truth would cause far less anxiety, than what we will later experience from the constant avoidance of such humiliation. Like I said before, our technology allows us to avoid this much easier almost completely, but as Bandura relays, the avoidance of such pain can lead to illness caused by stress or worse, could lead to psychopathology. In fact, George Kelly believes we don’t naturally respond to the environment truthfully in order to avoid pain, but to maximize our understanding of our accurate, true view of the world.

So, why do we complicate the world with silly little white lies? I theorize, that if we are feeling weak against the many pressures of the world, our judgment, in our process of Self-Regulation, becomes overridden by the “Cultural Conscience” and we respond in a behavior that pushes us almost automatically, in the way of making a response based on cultural and social influences. It’s like a defense mechanism, a filter in the preconscious mind, that other animals have no concept of, but that we use like instinct in order to avoid more social pressure.

I have a good friend who tried to make his point with this quote that something about how cuttlefish change their appearance to camouflage themselves from predators and are they lying because they do this? Let me just say that the people I’m talking about are so confused that if they were lying to do something so humble as protect themselves from predators their equivalent answer to disguising themselves would be pink camouflage and designer sunglasses. They want to be hidden but not “too hidden” if you know what I mean.

I keep looking down at a scratch I have on my palm because it reminds me of my friend’s deep funky scar she has in the same place. Well her’s is almost a scar, a barely closed wound really; still healing from trying to block the knife that stabbed her.

Let me just say that if you have any best friends that you have not gotten in touch with in a while, I highly recommend just calling and saying hello because the chances that they may need you are great.

What I thought was going to be a lovely Sunday evening reuniting with one of my old friends turned out to be a very rude awakening for me. This friend is one that I consider one of the best and one I know I’ll always be friends with no matter how few and far between our visits are. You meet few people in your life that hold this ranking, but you know them when you meet them. They’re like your friend soul mate. It was lovely, don’t get me wrong. It felt very good to make the face to face connection again, but what she told me I had missed over the year completely rocked my world.

As things often go, my friend and I don’t get much contact anymore in that we’ve moved on to different cities and started families, etc. etc. So it’s not unusual when one of us goes MIA for a while. We just get busy and after a while get together on Facebook or email and catch up. Add the fact that most of my family and old friends live in Houston which is a place I rarely visit anymore and well, you tend to miss some things.

If you must know why I don’t like Houston, being that I was born and raised there, I don’t like it because well, Houston is getting to be a dangerous shit hole. Not to put too fine a point on it. I don’t mean the whole place is a cesspool of crime by anymeans, because that’s just not acurate. There are some fantasic parts of Houston that everyone wants to be in. Austin has it’s share of daily tragedy too. Every big city has them, but let’s just say Houston is very big and has a lot of room for crazies. I used to feel so safe when growing up there. Now? Not so much. Hey, check the history books. Even Sam thought it was a shit hole.

Okay, obviously I didn’t always feel this way about my home town and obviously I’m completely spoiled living where I live now, in typically safe west Austin. While I’m in danger of being accused of being a snob for feeling this way, I really can’t help but make the connection between Houston’s crime rate and the ever increasing tragedy that is recently plagued my friends and family as of late. I could go on and on about the horrible things that have happened of late in and around Houston, mostly because of drugs, but not necessarily. Things that you would maybe expect in New York or LA, not the subs of H-town. I actually saw my grandparents’ house featured on the reality show The First 48, which is a reality show about gathering as much information about a murder in the first 48 hours of an investigation. The 20-something year old that lived across the street had her head nearly completey severed by an angry ex-boyfriend. Seriously, people, just as a conscientious observer looking in from the outside, I can tell it is not the town I used to know.

To put it in perspective for you, I got my first real job in the Woodlands and spent many a late college night on the backstage security staff of the Cynthia Woods Mitchel Pavilion. Me, 115 lbs. me…on security detail. That’s about how much people were afraid of getting jacked in the Woodlands. At that time, my worst and only fear of living in Houston was that I had to drive on I-45 every day.

But a decade (or so) later, just the other day a woman was shot to death in the Woodlands just taking her baby to the pediatrician. Probably where my mom used to take me. Some crazy person decided (with the help of another crazy person no less) that they wanted a baby and that all they would have to do is take it. So they stalked the woman, and when the timing was right the person grabbed the nine day old right out of his mother’s arms. Of course the mother fought like hell so the crazy lady shot her dead and drove off with the baby. Hours later the criminals were caught and the baby was rescued thank God. They really had no plan other than taking it and going home. How on earth did they think they would get away with that? What are the chances of having two crazy people taking so much uncalculated risk? Is the desperation per person in Houston higher? Maybe, but my best guess is that the environment of crime and the prevalence of it being so high in such a large population, aids psychos in thinking: Hey, what the hell.

When I go everything kind of looks familiar, but there’s just something that’s not quite right. Kind of like nephews and nieces you haven’t seen in a while. The last picture you had of them they were so cute wearing their little soccer uniforms and the next thing you know they’re all hairy and joining the military. The change is unnerving to say the least. But to those who have grown up there and plan on staying there, I swear it’s like they hardly even notice anything but the traffic.

I guess it’s one thing to have a home where you feel safe and quite another to be a visitor having to stay in a hotel somewhere off I-45 where the pimps keep their BMW’s running out front, no matter how long they plan on staying. The fact that I’m also a writer which makes me a little paranoid and reclusive by nature doesn’t help my uneasiness.

I know my friends and family don’t feel the same way because they’re used to it. Of course it seems like a harsher more superficial perspective I have as a “visitor,” but as someone who did live there most of my life, to me, it seems like the old friendly Texan environment is gone and I just don’t think it’s worth it to ever go back. Usually, like Stevie Nicks I keep my visions to myself because I know I’d hurt their feelings by dogging our hometown. When I bring up moving away from Houston they just sigh and tell me they’re husbands will never move, they share custody with an ex-spouse who will never move, they’ve got a good job in this economy, what have you. Then I sigh and think: well, if they’re used to it then that’s good, because most of them are never going to have a choice. They have put down roots. I respect that so I back off. There is usually no more to say, but the events that have recently come to light regarding my loved ones and my home town have made me rethink everything.

I don’t know why it’s worse there than in other towns, but the crime is bound to touch you in one way or another if you live there. It’s touching me lately, and I don’t even live there. The thing is, it’s not the town. It’s the people and the times we live in. As much as I want to blame Houston, that really doesn’t help.

First of all, Houston being Houston is not the reason violence happens to good people. There is tragedy and crazy people everywhere, but that’s exactly why I am specifically saying this to women no matter where you are no matter what your situation.

Imagine you and your best friend and why you are best friends. It’s probably because you tend to have very similar goals in your lives, similar personalities, maybe even the same strengths and weaknesses, that including men. I know my best friends tend to be pleasers like me. We have trouble saying no to people we love and have even more trouble dealing with the guilt on the rare occasion that we do. Now imagine you two going through similar situations; getting married and each having a child. You both have beautiful little girls that look just like you. Now imagine one of you having marital problems. That’s not too hard to imagine; everybody has those. Now it gets a little tricky. What if those marital problems were caused by him having a mental health problem like bi-polar disorder? That’s common enough, could still be you. What if those health problems were exacerbated by drug abuse? Why not? We’re close enough to that around here with our beer and coffee habits. I can see that happening to me. So far, maybe you are exactly in the same boat. But one day, something sets you apart without you ever knowing it’s even happened.

At a certain point the anguish becomes too much and plans have to be made to get out of the marriage without setting off any mental explosions. This would have to be done quietly and without the knowledge or help of any friends. As fate would have it, the husband who has mental health and then drug problems goes to jail for a while, making an easier exit for the wife possible. A divorce is finalized and a bit of relief begins to set in. There’s a hitch though. The “changed man” who never has been physically violent wants to see his daughter; supervised of course. This still kind of sounds like a pretty typical divorce these days, does it not? After a while of witnessing truly rehabilitated behavior the wife is ready to let her guard down just a little, for the sake of being civil and for the sake of the child’s relationship with her father. For the sake of gas mileage, I can honestly say, I’d had let the father of my child know my address. Especially if I truly thought he was not a violent person and no longer on drugs.

So which one of you would you choose the next set events happen to? The father comes to help the mother paint their four year old daughter’s room. Together they paint it a beautiful shade of violet. Then they clean up putting the little girl to bed, exhausted from an exciting day with mommy and daddy again for the first time in a long time. Happily ever after is just a beer clink away. She kneels down to pick up something off the floor when she feels the cold of a knife to her throat. Only when she hears the vicious words hissing out of his mouth that he’s there to kill her does she recognize that it actually is a knife. She fights for her life waking everyone in the house and nearby neighbors with her blood curdling screams. Her four year old little girl comes running in and watches in horror as her father stabs her mother five times aiming for all her major organs. As a student of anatomy there is no question he knows what he is trying to hit. Somehow although now starting to black out, she is able to fight her way to the handgun he had no idea she had and she shoots him… and kills him.

My friend says all she could think about was not passing out and getting to that gun because she knew he would kill her daughter too if she failed.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I can no longer identify at this point and my guess is neither can you. The words are going in, but no comprende’, you know what I’m saying? The absolute truth of it all is that there is no reason that it couldn’t have been me or you. Hell, she and I met because of our involvement with a crazy guy we once dated and between the two of us, we didn’t really date all that much. It could have been me in that situation and I hate to say it, but I don’t think I would be able to get to my gun. Then I realized I would have been a victim of my own Pseudos. I heard them when I bought the gun that I really would have to own the fact that I would have to kill someone if ever I had to use it. I believed them that it was absolutely the way it was going to be, but I never understood or felt the gravity of that until now.

Social psychologists say that upon hearing about a tragedy in general we try like crazy to see/find out who it happened to so that we can identify with the victim in some way. (This is their explanation for rubber necking.) Then shortly after that, the second thing we want to find out is what exactly happened and every little detail about how because we want to rule out any chances that the scenario could ever happen to us. In essence, we then desperately try to UN-identify with the situation. Basically it’s nature’s way of calming us down when we are not in any immediate danger. But I tell you, I’m having a hell of a time “un-identifying” with this one. I don’t see how any of us can. I don’t see how any woman can hear this story and not want to get a gun and learn to use it. If you can, let me just add one more thing. While my friend was lying there bleeding to death on the floor having just shot her husband, and desperate just to let someone, anyone, know that she had life insurance in case she didn’t make it, 911 put her on hold. That alone is evidence enough to know you can’t count on anyone to come save you. I don’t know which is more disturbing. That Houston’s 911 can put you on hold in a situation like that or that they are so busy with crisis in that city that they have to put you on hold in the first place.

If you happen to be like my friends and family and have deep roots in a shitty town, I wish for you to be aware that just because you’re “used to it” doesn’t mean you are prepared for it. While many get used to being unprepared and will never be comfortable defending themselves because of how they were raised, I mean no disrespect. You are not a weak person by choosing not to own a gun. I’m mainly talking to the ladies out there who go the lengths of getting a gun, but never touch it as the thought of ever having to use it seems too intimidating to fathom. I’m guilty of this and I admit it.

We convince ourselves we’ll never have to use it. We have it “just in case” but we never want to think about “the case” in which we would have to kill someone. We walk around as mothers thinking we can do anything if we put our minds to it, but because most of us refuse to think like men, we become victims of them more often than we have to.

Now I’m going to get in all kinds of trouble for saying that, but my point is that men are wired in ways that we don’t want to comprehend. They think of scenarios women may think are extremely violent or vulgar, but in their minds are just simply scenarios…possibilities. None the less, we can’t think like them and seriously, we shouldn’t want to. Maybe that is why we tend to put an emotional price tag on everything we think of because that’s how we get hurt the most. Physical pain isn’t something we are all that afraid of or foreign to, but something we don’t seek out either. Subjects like guns and how we’re going to blow someone away just aren’t something we typically fantasize about. But this I’m sorry to say, puts us at a disadvantage in an ever increasingly violent environment. What can we do but take certain precautions?

The fact is it’s not usually the strangers from the bad environment you have to be worried about. It’s the people you surrounded yourself with voluntarily and care about who inadvertently are influenced by the bad environment and end up hurting you. After what I heard last night about my girlfriend’s survival story, I can assure you, now is the time to get paranoid.

Ann Coulter said recently that everyone should get a gun. I’m going to second that motion, but I also want to add that if you happen to be a woman, you should especially get a gun and learn how to use it well. Ninja training is a little difficult, but if you want to do that, I think that might be the only viable alternative. If a man is out to murder his wife, the cards are stacked heavily in his favor. If you take away the fear of getting caught and going to jail, as in a murder suicide situation- the likelihood of a man being able to carry out his wishes is fairly easy. Add an environment where there are about 290 murders/homicides a year happened and you’ve got a reason to get a gun and know how to use it well. Out of those I found there were at least 20 murder suicides and attempts in the area. You know how many there were in NY City NY? Try six. Crime on the decline? Ha! I think maybe 10 less people were murdered last year than the year before. Congratulations. You did better than Afghanistan.

I’m about to get in trouble again but I’m pretty sure this is true. We women are forever suckers when it comes to the father of our children and they know this, deep. There is just something inside them that knows that if they are really patient and concentrate on how, they can make us believe anything. We want the happily ever after no matter what we have to go through to get it. The phrase “I’m a changed man” should be a red light to every woman, because we all know “deep” that it’s impossible, but we ignore it anyway. We love so deep and become so dependent on our spouse when we have a family even if that dependence is a hindrance to our health. My point is we never know who will hurt us the most or how far someone will go to hurt us until many times it’s beyond our control. And when this person happens to be a man, and maybe even a man who knows your particular weaknesses, what are you prepared to do to save yourself and possibly your children as well? How many scenarios have you gone over in your head about just what you would have to do if you needed to escape a male attacker? Have you ever thought of what you would do if the attacker was your husband? I know I for one, I don’t want to think about that. Honestly, with a gun I don’t have to give it much thought.

If I am trained well enough with my gun, I know where it is and I know I can get to it in an emergency, I don’t think about who I’ll have to shoot or why. I just know I can and that I will if someone comes after my babies. I am no longer an ultra-vulnerable, uber-trusting wife. I am now a force to be reckoned with and I have no qualms about reminding my husband of that every chance I get. Not that I think he’d ever do anything to harm me, but it serves like a reminder of the fact that I can take care of myself if he’s not around; either physically or mentally… if you know what I mean. Look, it’s not any different than leaving out the tampon box in the bathroom around your period. It’s just a subtle reminder to the man that he needs to leave you the hell alone.

I can only say this. My friend and her daughter are alive today because she had a handgun and she used it…well. After all the time she spent planning and lengths she went to in order to just stay away from the danger, the one moment she let her guard down was the one moment evil took advantage of. She was able to save herself with nothing but shear will power and that gun. At some point she felt her husband or an intruder would be more of a danger to have around than a gun and for that correct decision she is still alive today to watch sailboats, talk about the Cure and drink red wine with me. My friend isn’t any different from us, well, other than the fact that she is an absolute hero.

WAKE UP AMERICA! We are quickly stacking up the victims of psychological warfare. I call it Pseudos as John the Baptist and Jesus called it in the first century. It is not a silent tactic by any means and it is certainly deadly…toxic actually, to our American culture. It really only works on the people who loyally follow spouters of Pseudos, but if you don’t know how to recognize Pseudos when you hear it, how will you ever know how to avoid it? So, let me just give you one little piece of advice. You had better keep an eye on who you think is actually going to lead you out of this dark, dank, cave we are entering called cultural and financial ruin. Everyone knows we’re heading there. From Joe the Plumber to the Mexicans who no longer find our country an appealing place to raise their children; they no longer see an American Dream. Yet no one really notices there is something very foul creeping, expanding, seeking-out control in our midst. No one really wants to see the cause. Admitting seeing it is so…discriminating, so…dirty… so incriminating.

Being categorized as Right wing or Left wing is not the goal in life here. We have much bigger fish to fry as a country, but for some reason there seems to be a war going on about choosing one side or the other. It is brutal and full of hatred. What seems to be the trend with our lawmakers is the refusal to do what is right because it is not politically good for a particular leader. This is apparently going to continue no matter what the people need. From the prospective of many of our Democratic lawmakers, real, hardworking, good people have become insignificant- and almost deserving the prospective downturn in their livelihoods. Because they are conservative they should pay. No one believes that conservatives have already given so much that they do not need the government to take their money and give it to others. According to most liberal opinion makers, it is not cool to have the opinion that the government isn’t worth the price. Conservatives know this to be the truth because they know whether Republican or Democrat run, the government never does anything right. So therefor, if you translate the Pseudos here, we hear: knowing the truth about the effectiveness of the government really isn’t cool.

I don’t automatically think those who get government handouts necessarily think the opposite of conservative Republicans either. I don’t think they all truly believe their conquering of the intricacies of welfare and food stamps is considered a special job skill. Really, I don’t. But welfare is never a permanent fix for anyone, no matter how they think. So, why would leaders want to make this the government’s job and only the governments job? Churches and religious bodies aren’t cool remember? Liberal leaders say you can’t depend on churches because they believe religion is exclusionary. So let’s assume they get their wish and they’re all gone. We want to make sure the government does the charity, not churches, because they only help Christians and people who promise to convert to Christianity right? We’ll all be better off when we all we have to depend on is our government handout. Ah, those will be good times. Don’t laugh! People are drinking this Pseudos laced Kool-Aid by the gallons.

I think of a frat party where the main plan is to have as many free wine coolers available as they can. They don’t drink wine coolers but the dumb sorority girls who show up to the party do. It never occurs to them that they are the only ones drinking and before they know it, they’re wondering why they all decided to go swimming in their only change of clothes. Like a passed out sorority girl, we won’t have any idea what’s coming until it‘s too late.

This morning’s follow-up report on the brutal slaying of little Leiby Kletzky leaves me a gasp.

This is so sad. Again, I hate it when I’m right. I just wrote about this just last week! Did I not? I said parents have been telling their kids that it is inappropriate to look at strange people as “bad” people. This is a perfect example. In this case the stranger was a monster. Do you believe me now, that monsters exist?

The report said this morning that all the kids in the neighborhood thought this man Aaron was creepy, that he used to stare at them and would frequently try to coax children into his house. NOT ONE OF THEM SAID ANYTHING TO THEIR PARENTS? Why? I’m not blaming the kids here, but the parents. Hey, I don’t live in their house, I don’t know if the parents ever taught their kids about strangers or not. However, my theory is that they have been following the current trend which is to be politically correct even about monsters. Did these kids really think it would be better not to tell anyone about the strange behavior of the man and let it just become and urban legend?

When I was growing up, I thought my parents and the parents of my friends were a little paranoid about this, given we lived in a very safe suburb of Houston. Still, there were creeps everywhere. Anytime we were faced with someone we did not know we ran and told our parents. Our parents would come out and make their presence known. Usually, that is enough to keep strangers from coming back. But, sometimes parents aren’t around so kids need to know it’s okay to run away- even run away screaming, rude as it might seem. The bigger the scene the better. My mother used to tell me that if I were ever being kidnapped by anyone to scream fire! She said people tend to ignore little kids being dragged out of malls by mad-looking people. If I scream fire they’ll all pay attention. Good plan, I think.

If just one parent had listened and reported it to someone or even confronted Aaron, perhaps he would have never tried something like this. Unfortunately it looks like the children in the neighborhood were not taught what to do in this situation and obviously thought they would get in trouble for saying something. This is not a case of hindsight 20/20. I will be the one that says I told you so, because damn it, parents, YOU know better. You tell your children to run from strangers. Strangers won’t get their feelings hurt. For one, they know better than to coax a kid into their car or home, regardless if they are a nice person or not. All adults know that act alone is inappropriate and that anyone who witnesses such has every right to complain. Leiby could have been lost all day and no one would have hurt him. It wasn’t his lack of directional sense or lack of knowing which way was the right way that hurt him. It was the simple act of trusting someone he did not know, a stranger. That should have never been an option. That little boy might be alive if just one parent had complained.